The Day We Were Born and Started the War
by smaragdbird
Summary: In a world where neither Xavier nor Magneto ever existed Rogue, John, Angel, Remy, and Piotr try to live their lives in an environment hostile towards mutants. All of them have mostly found a way to make their living if not legally then illegally. Slash
1. Chapter 1

The Day We Were Born and Started the War

Young girl in the market 

Music to the men  
When the men leave  
Her eyes are red  
When her eyes are closed again  
she sees the dark market  
of above

Young boy in the market  
Follows all the men  
When the men leave  
He's out of his head  
When his eyes are closed again  
he sees the dark market  
of above

Young boy in the market  
Sees the girl alone  
And asks her  
"Have you lost your way home?"

Rogue had to force her eyes to stay open. After fourteen hours of selling coffee and sandwiches to passengers she just wanted to crawl onto her mattress in the flat on the other side of the city she lived in and sleep. She looked at her watch: only a few minutes to ten, then she could close the shop and sleep.

The train station was nearly deserted, but that wasn't that unusual since the trains came only every thirty minutes and there was a café on the other side of the street.

She could see a man with a book, a couple and two other men that simply stared into the distance.

The doors opened and John came in and as usual he was the only person in this station that looked awake. He sauntered over to her like he owned this place, grinning in a way that she was sure, attracted people to him like honey attracted flies.

'Hey, Rogue, got a coffee for me?'

'If you can pay, sure.'

'I come here every evening and grace you with my charm and wits and you can't even give me a coffee for free.' He sighed melodramatically as he searched in his pockets for the money.

'My boss told me that you charmed her a long time before I showed up.'

'It's not my fault that only pretty ladies work here, is it?'

'Good night, John.' Rogue said as she handed him his coffee.

'See you tomorrow.' He sauntered out again, while she closed the shop. In the back were two additional rooms: a small bathroom with a toilet and a sink and the store room where she used to sleep before John had taken her in.

Rogue had met John right on her first day here. He usually came twice a day: once in the afternoon and then again in the night. She wouldn't have paid more attention to him than to the other regular customers if he hadn't saved her life once.

}

}

}

}

}

}

_She had been coming back after on the evening of her free day when a guy had grabbed her. Before she had even known what was happening, there had been flames everywhere and instead of the guy, John had been next to her and calmly watched the man burn._

'_You should be more careful.'_

'_I…tha…thanks.' Rogue had stuttered and then blurted:_

'_You…you're a mutant.'_

'_Just like you.'_

'_How…?'_

'_Oh, please, no one wears gloves at this temperature. So either you had deformed hands or you were a mutant.'_

'_You killed him.'_

'_He deserved it and don't worry. They won't find more than a heap of ashes when I'm done with him.'_

'_Have you done this before?'_

'_I won't kill you.'_

'_Does that mean yes?'_

'_That means you don't need to be afraid of me. Go back inside.'_

'_John.'_

'_Yes?'_

'_Thank you.'_

}

}

}

}

}

}

That's how they became some sorts of friends you. She didn't know if John was his real name but it didn't matter since Rogue wasn't her real name either. Or maybe it was, maybe she left Marie in Mississippi.

John had brought her to his friends, a group of mutants, all around their age that lived in a flat together. The flat wasn't that big, it had four rooms but they were small, especially for two people sleeping in each of them. It was clean and warm, though. It was better than everything else she'd had except for Logan's trailer but that had probably more to do with Logan and less with the trailer.

She shared a room with Jubilee, who spent her days showing gymnastic tricks and fireworks on streets, in parks and shopping malls. Jubilee dressed in bright colours and always, always wore a yellow jacket. Marie and the others teased her mercilessly about it.

The others were Piotr, Angel and Remy. Piotr was from Russia. He sold his pictures on the streets and made portraits. His drawings hang everywhere in the flat, sketches from all six of them, colourful landscapes and Boston's streets.

Remy was close to John. While Remy never bothered to hide his New Orleans origin and John's English jumped through different accents and pronunciations that it was impossible to pinpoint where he came from, they both spoke the same Cajun French, particularly when they fought about something.

Angel was the only one with physical mutations. He had two huge, white-feathered wings on his back which made it impossible for him to go outside. Angel was even more secretive about his past than the rest of them, but he regularly chatted with someone on his old laptop that he called 'an old friend.'.

}

}

}

}

}

}

'Remy!' Rogue knocked impatiently on the bathroom door in the next morning: 'If I'm going to be late because of you I'll kick your ass into the next week!'

'Give up.' John sauntered through the hallway: 'But Angel did the dishes last night so you can wash your hair in the sink.'

'With the dish-soap perhaps?' She asked sarcastically and hammered against the door again. If it weren't for her gloves she would probably already have splinters in her hands: 'Remy!'

John shrugged and opened the door to his and Remy's room: 'Jubes did. See you later.'

The bathroom door opened.

'Chère.' Remy's shoulder-long hair hang in wet tresses from his head: 'No need to break the wood, qui?'

'I can kill you with a touch.' She reminded him menacingly and yanked him out into the hallway while completely ignoring that the second most attractive man she'd ever seen was naked. She silenced his protests by shutting and locking the door.

After showering she towelled her hair dry as well as she could. Thanks to Remy she didn't have time for blow-drying it and breakfast. Life began early for all of them except for John, who usually ate and then went back to bed until he had to wake up for school. The rest of them sat at the table in the kitchen/living-room hybrid. Angel, who usually did all the housework because he was the only one of them who didn't bring in any money, was not permitted to cook under any circumstances. Jubilee already munched her way through a stack of delicious looking beignets. She waved at Rogue and shoved another for full of beignet and powder sugar into her mouth.

'Good morning, Rogue.' Piotr said from his seat. Angel swallowed first before greeting her and Remy, who stood at the counter making coffee threw her a flirtatious smile that she countered with an eyeroll. She hadn't forgiven him yet.

'Piotr has a date.' Remy told them.

'Whom?' Rogue asked between two bites.

'Her name's Kaitlin. I portrayed her a few days ago.'

'Cute?' Jubilee wanted to know. Of course with her mouth full it sounded more like 'Fufe?'

'She has an unique grace.' Piotr was finished with his breakfast and carried his dishes to the sink. Jubilee swallowed and blinked at the others: 'Was that a yes or a no?'

'I think he means that you shouldn't judge a person just by their looks.' Angel interpreted.

'Which means no, she's as ugly as an old turtle.' Remy threw in.

'Didn't he go on a date with the human statue last week?' Rogue asked.

'I think Kaitlin is the human statue.' Angel pondered.

'Wasn't the human statue's name Michelle?'Jubilee replied.

'No, Michelle was the ballet dancer.' Rogue corrected her.

'Michelle was the botany student and Simone the ballet dancer.' Angel's voice left no space for doubt.

'At least one of us has a life.' Jubilee said and dedicated herself to her breakfast again.

'Speak for yourself.' Remy mocked her. Jubilee glared at him like she contemplated throwing a little plasma light at him but decided against it and instead grabbed Remy's coffee mug and drained it while easily evading his hands. Stealing Remy's coffee came very close to committing a sacrilege.

'Bye!' She called and more or less jumped out of the flat.

}

}

}

}

}

}

'Good morning, Rogue.' Raven smiled at her. Rogue was a bit surprised to see her since usually she opened the shop and her boss came in around ten.

'Morning.' Rogue replied: 'You're very early today.'

'Irene has a conference in Atlanta and the boys are on a class trip. I didn't know what to do with myself.' Raven laughed: 'If you want you can have the afternoon off.'

'Thank you.' Rogue answered sincerely.

'Don't mention it.' Raven winked at her: 'Could you wait outside for Nick? I'll warm up the coffee machine.'

'Sure.' Rogue grabbed her coat and left the building, looking for Nick's van in which he delivered the pastries and sandwiches they sold during the day. Funnily, Nick was a mutant, too and lived next door to Rogue and the others with his little sister Cassie. Or at least Rogue assumed that Cassie was Nick's little sister.

'Hey Rogue.' Nick called when he stopped the van in front of her: 'You don't need to wait outside for me.'

'My boss told me to.' She countered: 'You're late.'

'There was a road control on the way here. Rogue mutant on the run. Sorry,' he added.

'Better help me unload.' They carried plastic boxes filled with baked goods wrapped in grease-proof paper and unloaded them into the storage room. Raven smiled at Nick when they came out again.

'Morning, Nick.'

'Good morning, Ma'am.' Nick replied while Rogue tried to hide a snicker. She always expected Nick to salute to Raven and blush like a schoolboy, but he never went that far.

'How are you?' She asked friendly.

'I'm fine, Cassie as well.' He answered.

'She's happy in school then?'

'She's still getting used to it.' Nick admitted: 'We both do. The first teacher-parent conference was a bit awkward.'

'Oh, I know.' Raven laughed. She patted Nick on the arm: 'Have a nice day.'

'You, too.' Nick nodded at Raven and Rogue and then left the shop.

}

}

}

}

}

}

The day went by easily. It was tourist season and time passed faster when you worked all the time as if there was nothing to do. During a short lull Rogue had sent John a text message to tell him that she would have a free afternoon and John had replied that in that case he would take a short vacation from his job, too.

'If that isn't John Allerdyce.' Rogue had been changing from uniform to street clothes in the storage room when she heard Raven's voice.

'You look as beautiful as always.' John replied smoothly.

'Don't try me, boy. I've got two of you kind at home.

'I'm regularly assured that I'm unique and unmistakable.' John leered.

'Ah, Rogue. You can vote for my distinctiveness.' John said when she stepped outside.

'I'm out.' Rogue answered. John mouthed 'traitor' at her and Raven laughed:

'Off with you two. Have a nice day.'

'Thanks.' Rogue said again. It was like an extended weekend since she had tomorrow off. The clouds outside didn't look nice. They were grey and hang low.

'Looks like rain.' She said. John followed her glance and shrugged: 'I wanted to stay indoors anyway.'

'New movie?' She guessed. If John wanted to stay inside without Bobby and a flat surface somewhere then it usually meant that there was a new movie out that John wanted to see.

'Bet on it.'

'Which one?'

'Does that matter?'

'As long as it's not one of these horribly realistic independent movies, no.' She pulled her hood up when the first rain drops hit her face: 'We could pick up Jubes and Piotr.'

John shrugged as if to say 'Sure, why not.'

}

}

}

}

}

}

Piotr sat in or near the entrance of Boston's biggest park. He wasn't the only artist there but one of the most liked ones. Usually there was already another customer waiting before he had finished the current portrait. Today, with the weather not nice at all it wasn't like this, but despite the wind and the temperatures he only wore jeans and a t-shirt.

'Hey, Pete!' John called and Piotr made a face. He hated it to be called Pete.

'My boss gave me the afternoon off.' Rogue told him: 'Want to go to the cinema with us?'

Piotr shrugged but began to put his things together.

'I like this one.' John held up a picture of the Boston sky line seen from the sea: 'How much?'

'Five dollars.'

'Man, at least no one can say that you sell yourself cheap.' John complained but he paid.

Jubilee was a bit less enthusiastic to leave her workplace since the security guard had allowed her to perform inside the shopping mall instead of in front of it and her gain was accordingly high but John and Rogue managed to persuade her.

}

}

}

}

}

}

'That was the worst movie I've ever seen.' Piotr declared firmly when Angel asked in the evening about the film they'd seen.

'Dreadful.' Jubilee confirmed emphatically.

'What was dreadful?' Came a male voice from the door.

'Logan!' Jubilee squeaked and jumped him.

'Logan?' Rogue asked surprised and when his eyes met hers over Jubilee's shoulder she saw them widen in surprise, too.

'Why didn't you tell us that you would come?' Jubilee asked when she finally let go of him.

'Rogue?' Logan finally asked: 'What...?'

'John brought me in.' She answered lightly.

'I didn't know you know each other.' That was Jubilee.

'Logan threw me out of his trailer after I saved his life in a seedy bar in Canada.' Rogue told Jubilee.

'And I picked you back up.' Logan reminded her. He followed the two girls into the kitchen where he nodded at Piotr and John.

'Hey, birdbrain.' He called Angel, who stood next to the window: 'Can I get a beer?' Angel threw a nasty look in Logan's direction but still went to the fridge.

'Thanks.' Logan said when he took the bottle: 'Where's Remy?'

'Out.' John merely said.

'With whom?' Logan wanted to know: 'Essex?' From what Rogue understood Essex was Remy's boss but John worked for him, too at times.

'Creed.' Everyone in the room tensed up when John mentioned the name of Remy's co-worker and boyfriend. Logan made a movement that looked like an uneasy shrug.

'Do you mind if I crash on your couch for tonight?' He asked John.

'I'm sure Remy would even let you have the bed.' John smirked. Logan snorted but before he could answer anything, John's cell rang. One look at the display had John's face light up like it was Christmas and the last thing they heard of him was a happy: 'Hi.' before he close the door behind him.

'I need some fresh air.' Angel announced and grabbed his coat, which hid his wings completely but made him look like a hunchback. Without a word, Piotr followed him but nodded to Logan and Logan nodded back.

'John picked you up?' Logan picked up the conversation earlier: 'Where?'

'Where you left me. With Raven's bakery.' Rogue laughed.

'She's okay? Raven, I mean.'

'She's fine.' Rogue assured him.

'How long are you staying?' Jubilee wanted to know.

'Don't know yet. A few days probably.' Logan answered.

The door was opened and John put his head in: 'I'm out and if Remy comes back tonight tell him that I won't. Bye.'

'New Girlfriend?' Logan asked: 'Or is it still Bobby?'

'It's still Bobby.' Jubilee replied: 'You don't call often enough, Logan. Angel and Remy have a bet against Piotr that Bobby's going to ask John to marry him on graduation day.'

'And what does Piotr say?' Logan wanted to know.

'That he's going to ask on prom night.'

'And if he doesn't ask at all?' Rogue was curious. She hadn't heard about this bet before either.

'Then I'm going to win an obscene amount of money.' Jubilee told them with a big grin.

It was nice for once just to sit here with Logan again and to listen to Jubilee telling stories from work: wild chases with security guards and the faces of people who thought that they had her lightening tricks all figured out when they realized that they hadn't.

The front door was opened again. This time it was Angel and Piotr, who were pretty much soaked through. Angel vanished into the bathroom as soon as he had set a foot into the flat but Piotr merely pulled his wet t-shirt over his head, which Angel took with him into the bathroom to put it up, and grabbed a towel from the linen cupboard to dry himself.

Jubilee purred appreciatively, which made Piotr blush. He disappeared into his and Angel's room for a few seconds and came back with a fresh shirt on. Jubilee mock-pouted at him:

'I was enjoying the view.' Piotr shrugged at that and proceeded to make tea.

'Do you want some?' he asked in the general direction of the kitchen table. All three of them shook their heads. When the water had boiled and soaked through two tea bags in two mugs, Piotr vanished into the bathroom. In the beginning this behaviour had puzzled Rogue because she had known that that Piotr and Angel weren't a couple but by now she understood that Piotr was the only one Angel trusted enough to wash his back where he couldn't reach it between his wings.

Ten minutes later Angel joined them in the kitchen in new clothes and with damp hair but instead of sitting down at the table he preferred to lean against a counter and sipped his tea.

'...and then he asked me if-'Rogue told a story about one of her more capricious customers when Remy sauntered in, followed by a giant of man: Victor Creed. Creed was a good foot taller than Logan with animal-like teeth and claws as fingernails. It was hard to see him as anything but a monster and none of them had ever understood what Remy saw in Creed.

Logan was on his feet as soon as he saw Creed.

'Jimmy.' Creed grinned unpleasantly: 'I didn't think I would see you _here_.'

'I'm sure Remy would have told you if he thought it would be necessary.' Logan growled.

Remy looked like he wanted to step away from either man but Creed's arm lay over his shoulders and his claws rested against the soft skin of Remy's throat. It was a clear gesture of possession.

Logan took a step in Creed's direction. Rogue could see the peaks of his metal claws coming through his hand's skin.

'I can share with you, if you ask nicely.' Creed's grin turned from unpleasant to lecherous. Rogue had the fleeting thought that she wouldn't want to touch Creed if it would save her life. She didn't want to know what thoughts this man had, what he felt.

Logan made another step forward and looked like he was a second away from attacking Creed but Remy laid a hand on Logan's chest and effectively stopped him:

'Cher. No need to ruin a pleasant evening, qui?' Remy pushed slightly and Logan back down:

'You sit 'ere with the girls and I see if I can John persuade to join you.'

'John's sleeping at Bobby's.' Jubilee said into the room.

'C'est bon!' Remy smiled: 'Now, excusez nous.' He danced down the hallway and Creed trailed him, but not without a last, nasty glance at Logan before he closed the door behind them.

All of them flinched at the sudden noise of breaking dishes but it wasn't Logan but Angel, who had dropped his mug, or rather thrown it against the nearest wall.

'Sorry.' He muttered when he noticed all their eyes on him and went to clean up the mess. Everyone was noticeably upset. Jubilee and Rogue excused themselves for bed and Piotr gave Logan some blankets and a pillow before he left.

}

}

}

}

}

}

Rogue was woken by John and Remy yelling and screaming at each other – in French. On the other bed Jubilee rolled on her other side and hid her head under a pillow. Rogue, on the other hand, gave up on sleep and dragged herself out of bed. With any luck someone else was awake, too and had made coffee.

John and Remy stood in front of the closed front door and didn't even seem to notice her walking by, too busy clawing at each other's throats.

Logan sat at the kitchen table, Piotr, too, both with cups of coffee in front of them.

'Morning.' Rogue said and helped herself with the coffee pot.

'Morning.' Logan answered.

'Do I want to know what they're saying?' She gestured to Remy and John. Piotr shrugged and Logan admitted:

'My French's a bit rusty.'

'Creed's gone?'

'Just when John came home.' Logan told her.

'That's why they're fighting?'

There was a knock on the front door. John yanked it open and yelled:

'Creed, if you-'

'Uhm, hi John. Breakfast?'

John didn't blush but he had the grace to look sheepish.

'Sorry, Bobby. Come in.'

'Hi, Remy.'

'Bonjour Robert, John didn't say that you would come over today.'

'It was pretty much a last minute decision.' John helped Bobby to carry the paper bags into the kitchen while Remy woke Angel and Jubilee. Pretty soon seven half-awake mutants hunched over eggs and ham while Angel glared at Logan, Logan glared at Remy, Remy glared at John and John couldn't keep his eyes from Bobby although he didn't glare at all.

}

}

}

}

}

}

Rogue stayed behind after breakfast to help Angel with the dishes. Normally Angel did all the housework himself but she had managed to talk him into letting her help this morning. John and Bobby were in John's room, Jubilee went to 'work' and Remy's...somewhere.

'Illyana's death day is on Wednesday,' Piotr's soft voice floated from the couch through the room to Rogue and Angel in the kitchen section.

'I know.' Was Logan's answer.

'Are you staying that long?'

'Yes.'

Illyana, Piotr's little sister had died on Wednesday a year ago. Rogue didn't know much about her, only that she had been very ill and the reason why Piotr and she had come to the US. Rogue slept in her bed now since Illyana had been Jubilee's roommate and best friend but no one ever talked much about her.

'Hey.' Angel's voice brought her back to reality.

'Sorry.'

'If it helps,' his voice was very quiet. He didn't want Piotr and Logan to hear him: 'I didn't know her either.'

'It does. Thanks.'

}

}

}

}

}

}

Unsurprisingly she worked on Wednesday and equally unsurprising was that John didn't turn up. She bet that the rest of them didn't go to work either.

'You're quiet tonight.' Raven observed when they closed the shop: 'Logan's last night in town, isn't it?' She smirked.

'Yeah, it is.' He said so this morning when he had driven her to work.

'Don't worry. He'll be back before you noticed he's gone.'

'I noticed it last time and that was only seven months.'

'Seven months is something. Before he dropped you off at my doorstep I hadn't seen Logan for over two years.'

Rogue saw that someone had smeared 'Death the Freaks!' on a bench when she and Raven walked past it.

'Can I ask you something?' She turned to Raven.

'Sure.'

'Does your wife...I mean Irene, does she know that you're a mutant?'

'Yes, she does. I didn't tell her immediately...ten years ago things were even harder for mutants than they are now, but...yes, she knows. Why are you asking?'

'No reason.' With her mutation it wasn't like she would ever be able to have a relationship let alone a family, at least not unless they discovered a cure. The look Raven gave her said clearly that she knew what Rogue had been thinking but she didn't say anything.

Rogue met Angel when she reached the building they were living in. He leaned against a wall and smoked.

'These will kill you.' She told him.

'Maybe.' He shrugged.

'I'm surprised Piotr gets you cigarettes.'

'He doesn't.' Then he added muttering: 'They're all a bunch of anti-smoking fascists.'

'It _is _a nasty habit,' Rogue emphasised: 'Where did you get them?'

'I traded with our neighbours.'

'Nick doesn't smoke.' She pointed out.

'No, but Cassie needed a drink and for some strange reason it was easier for her to get cigarettes to trade with me than a drink.'

'Cassie's like 13. And you gave her alcohol?' Rogue frowned but Angel shrugged it off.

'She needs it for her visions. It helps, she says.' He held up his hands when he saw her doubtful face: 'Hey, I'm not one to judge. If she says she needs it then I believe her.'

'Wouldn't Nick buy her some if he thought it'd be a good idea?'

'I doubt that Cassie told him.' Angel laughed when he saw her sceptical face: 'It's the things we keep secret that keep us individual.'

'Is there such a thing as too much individualism?' She wondered.

'Don't ask me. I'm the wrong person for that question. All of us are, I believe.'

They were quiet for a long time while Angel smoked and Rogue simply refused to go upstairs.

'Do you know who shared Piotr's room before you came?' She had wanted to ask for a while now.

'A guy named Kurt. I mean I have bad luck with my wings but he couldn't go out at all. Apparently there was no way of hiding that he was a mutant. He killed himself three months before I came.'

'Do you know if he and Piotr were close?' Rogue couldn't help but ask. Warren shrugged:

'I don't ask questions, he doesn't ask questions. Makes us perfect roommates.'

'Can I have one?' She asked finally.

'I thought you don't smoke.'

'I feel like it today.'

'Because Logan left today?' Angel asked her with a sly smirk.

'My world doesn't revolve around Logan.' She reminded him and took a drag. The smoke filled her throat and stung in her lung. Then Rogue exhaled again:

'Did you ever think about the life you would have had if you weren't a mutant?'

'What did I say about questions?' He reminded her with a small smile.

'Sorry.' Rogue shook her head, and finished her cigarette in silence.

}

}

}

}

}

}

_It knocked on the door, four times, that was John. She got up from her mattress and opened the door. He was dripping wet._

'_Hey, can I come in? It's freaking storming outside.' She let him in and he followed her to the storage room where I gave him a towel._

'_Thanks.' He rubbed his face and his hair with it and then sat down on the floor, opposite her sleeping place. She lay back down and faced him._

'_Does it disturb you?' Rogue asked as she watched him fiddle with his lighter._

'_What?'_

'_That you're different.'_

'_Disturb?' He laughed: 'Fire's the best that ever happened to me. Does it disturb you?'_

'_I can't touch anybody without killing them, what do you think?' Rogue said a bit harsher than she intended to._

'_Maybe you just need to learn to control it.'_

'_Or maybe someone will find a cure to this.'_

'_What we are is not a sickness you can cure.' He said seriously: 'It's evolution. It's a gift.'_

'_How it is a gift to nearly kill your boyfriend with a kiss and to make your parents look at you like you're a monster?'_

'_Maybe he was a jerk and your mutation saved you from getting your heart broken by him and your parents, well if they can't love you like you are then they are jerks, too.'_

'_It's that the reason why you ran away?'_

'_Who told you that I ran away?'_

'_Would you hustle if you weren't?' _

'_Do you like it here?' He asked while he looked around in the storage room. Rogue shrugged:_

'_It's better than the alternative.'_

'_You could come with me if you want. There's a free bed where I'm living.'_

'_And where is that?'_

'_Me and a few friends, we share a flat. We're all mutants. It would be safer than staying here.'_

'_That sounds great.'_

_Rogue took a photo that had fallen out of John's clothes. It showed John next to a attractive blue-eyed, blond boy._

'_Who is this?' She asked and gave him the picture_

'_Bobby, my boyfriend.'_

'_He looks cute. Where did you meet him?'_

'_In school. He's in my literature class.'_

'_You go to school?' I asked surprised._

'_What do you think I'm doing every morning?' He snorted._

'_Sitting on some bench, watching the clouds go by?'_

'_Does he know?'_

'_Are you kidding me? Of course not. He's a perfect poster boy who saves kittens from trees and never cheats on exams. He thinks I'm showing fire tricks on the streets like Jubes.'_

'_Do you love him?'_

'_I'm not delusional, you know? This is not 'Pretty woman'.'_

'_Maybe it is.'_

'_Yeah, right.' He laughed humourlessly: 'Also, he's so freaked out about being a mutant, not to mention gay, that it's nearly disgusting sometimes. If I told him that I'm a hustler he would probably freeze my balls off or something.'_

'_You could do something else.'_

'_It's easy and it pays good enough. And I'm not taking drugs or anything so I actually get to keep most of the money. There are worse jobs.'_

_Rogue didn't comment on the numerous times she had seen him with bruises and scrapes and how careful he moved. They all lied to themselves in the end._


	2. Chapter 2

A few days later John told her that Essex wanted to meet her.

'Why does your boss want to see me?' She asked him incredulously.

'He's our landlord.' John pointed out: 'Don't worry. All of us met him.'

'And if he doesn't like me?'

'Essex likes everyone, and everyone likes Essex.' John said.

}

}

}

}

}

}

'Essex's fine.' Jubilee lay on her bed and watched Rogue trying to choose between one of her four outfits or so.

'Easy for you to say.' Rogue took a deep breath and began to brush her hair.

'He just asks a few questions. Where you're from. What your mutation is. That kind of stuff. He's a scientist and he's on our side. What more can you ask for?'

'Nothing.' Rogue admitted.

}

}

}

}

}

}

'Ahh, you have to be Miss...'

'Rogue. Just Rogue.' Rogue said. John had refused to come inside with her.

'Rogue, very well. It's a pleasure to meet you.' He smiled at her and shook her hand: 'I am Dr. Nathaniel Essex.' He gestured to a chair:

'Please, sit down.' Rogue did as she was told. Essex was a tall, brawny man with shoulder long dark hair and cold and calculating grey eyes.

'Don't worry my dear; I only have a few standard questions for my research.' Essex reassured her.

'Where are you from?'

'I'm from Meridian, Mississippi.'

'And how old were you when your mutation first manifested itself?'

'I was fifteen.' Rogue answered. Underneath her gloves her palms were sweating.

'What is your mutation, Rogue?'

'I don't know exactly.' She admitted.

'Then try to describe it in your own words.' He encouraged her.

'When people touch my skin, they hurt themselves.' Essex made some notes while nodding at her to make her continue: 'When I touch someone I can feel their thoughts, their memories.'

'Like you absorb a part of their personality?' He asked.

'Yes. Exactly like that.'

'You said that they hurt themselves when people touch them. How?'

'I don't know how.'

'I mean,' Essex explained: 'What kind of injuries do they have?'

'They become weak, suddenly and if I touch them too long...'She felt her throat tighten with the memory of Colby: 'They fall into a coma and die.'

'Have you ever touched a mutant?'

'I haven't touched anybody since...'

'-Since you killed your boyfriend?' Essex asked.

'How do you know...?'

'I am a man of many resources.' Essex said enigmatically.

'It was an accident.'

'I know it was.' He smiled at her kindly: 'You are not to blame for what happened, Rogue. I know that, believe me.'

'Thank you.'

'Now, could I have blood sample from you? Just for research purposes, I assure you.'

'Sure.' She rolled down the glove that covered most of her right arm. Essex's hands were warm, she could feel that even through the latex gloves, and shivered lightly. It had been a long, long time since anybody had touched her.

'See, already done.' He carefully labelled the tube with her name and the date and put it away.

'It's been a pleasure, Rogue.' And she knew that she was dismissed: 'Please tell John to come in for a minute.'

'Of course.'

Sunshine greeted her when she stepped outside. John leaned against the doorframe and played with his lighter, snapping it open and shut, open and shut but he never drew a flame.

'How was it?' He asked her.

'It was okay. Just a few questions and a blood sample, like you said. He wants to see you.'

'You're waiting?'

'Sure.'

'Kay.' He left her. The street wasn't crowded this early on a Saturday morning, only a couple with a dog walked by and a jogger ran on the sidewalk on other side of the road. Essex's labs were located in a much better neighbourhood than Rogue and the others lived but that was still better than all of the things she had slept in during her eight months on the road.

John came out again but he didn't look happy.

'Are you okay?' Rogue asked.

'I'm fine.' John replied gloomily. He didn't sound or look fine at all but Rogue didn't press the issue. She trusted John enough to share if something that was bothering him concerned her or all of them.

'Let's go home.'

}

}

}

}

}

}

Rogue was roughly pulled from sleep by Jubilee yelling her name.

'Wha...What's up?' Rogue asked.

'It's the police. They're searching the whole building.' Damn it. None of them were registered anywhere as far as Rogue knew and Piotr was an illegal immigrant. She took her gloves from under her bed and followed Jubilee outside.

Everyone else, even Nick and Cassie from next door were assembled in the kitchen and looked sleep deprived and bleary, which wasn't surprising considering that it was 2 AM. Only Angel looked as if he was about to faint.

Remy was on the phone with someone:

'Non, Victor. They want identification.' There was a pause: 'We don't 'ave that.' John ripped the cell impatiently from Remy's hand.

'Get your boss on the line Creed.' He snapped. Silence reigned for a few moments until John spoke again:

'There's a police raid in the building. No, I...They're looking for a Warren Worthington...it doesn't matter that I don't know him...Look, Piotr's illegally here and An-' But Remy shook his head frantically and gestured wildly. John frowned at him but finished with: 'an issue with Jubilee's and Cassie's age. There's no way they're going to believe a cover story...Then get your ass up and do something!' John hung up.

'Okay,' He turned to Remy: 'What the hell was that?' But it wasn't Remy who answered:

'I'm the man they're looking for.' Angel said: 'I'm Warren Worthington.'

'Fuck.' John cursed loudly: 'I want an explanation later but now we have to find a way to hide you. Remy can probably charm us a way out of the identification issue but there's no way the police is not going to search the flat for you unless Essex gets a grip on the situation.'

'You make it sound like my charm is a Jedi mind-trick.' Remy muttered.

Rogue went to the window and looked outside.

'They have officers around the building and searchlight everywhere. You can't fly.'

'Maybe you can.' Remy looked at Jubilee: 'Can you distract them with a lightshow?'

'But then they know that there's a mutant in the building.' Piotr reminded them. There was a harsh knock on the door.

'It's a risk we have to take.' John decided: 'Go to the fire escape. Do it when Remy opens the door and lets them in. The rest of stays here.' Everyone did as they were told. Rogue noticed that Piotr had folded his hands and prayed silently. Remy looked at John for a last time and when John nodded he opened the door.

'What can I do for you?' he asked friendly.

'We're looking for a fugitive. The name is Warren Worthington. A mutant. Step aside and let us in to make sure that you're not-' A cell phone rang. John gave Jubilee a sign to wait.

'Sir?...Yes, sir...Of course sir.' The call was disconnected.

'It's done.' The officer told presumably his colleagues: 'We're going home.'

Remy closed the door and Jubilee and Angel climbed back inside. One could practically hear the relived sigh from all of them.

'You,' John pointed at Angel: 'I want some answers from you, from you, too.' He added, looking at Remy.

A few minutes later Angel and Remy sat at the kitchen table surrounded by John, Piotr, Rogue and Jubilee. Nick and Cassie stood a bit apart from the rest of them.

'I'm Warren Worthington the 3rd, or at least I was.' Angel told them. He was looking at his hands on the table: 'My father is Warren Worthington senior, the owner of Worthington Labs, a biotechnology and bioengineering firm. When my wings grew when I was twelve my father refocused Worthington Labs' research to find a cure for mutations. But he found nothing. Six years ago he grew impatient and wanted to let a doctor amputate my wings, to 'free me of my burden' as he said.'

'You ran away.' Jubilee said.

'Quite obviously.' Angel smiled sadly: 'Officially I'm in a coma, since a car crash ten years ago, but unofficially my father is still searching for me.'

'But why?' That was Cassie. She had a deep frown on her face: 'That doesn't make sense.'

'I'm his son and I'm a mutant. The loss for his image would be disastrous, so he can't let become public knowledge what I am. He only can tolerate my existence when I'm either his prisoner or dead.'

'Did you know that when you brought him in?' John asked Piotr. Piotr shook his head and Angel reinforced:

'I didn't tell him.'

'But you knew.' That was for Remy.

'Essex has contacts to Worthington Labs and Victor knows Angel is here. I asked him to keep quiet to Essex about it.'

'Great.' John groaned and leaned back, with his face covered by his hands: 'As if we weren't deep enough in Essex's and Creed's debt.'

Everyone in the room looked uncomfortable at John's words. It was Angel, who broke the silence:

'I can go. I've been here too long anyway. And-'

'Shut up!' To everyone's surprise it was Piotr who had snapped at Angel: 'You're family. You're staying.' He met John's eyes challengingly: 'Isn't he?'

'Yeah, he is.' John looked at Angel: 'We're already in it, neck deep. You leaving wouldn't change that.'

'Thank you.' Angel said almost timidly.

'Now, that means we can all go back to bed, right?' That was Nick. He had an arm around Cassie's shoulders and yawned unashamedly.

'I don't think I can sleep after this.' Jubilee muttered but she trailed after the rest towards her room and her bed. Rogue was the last one to follow so she heard John asking Remy:

'Is that why you're letting Creed fuck you? So he keeps Angel's secret.'

'Ta gueule! Tu me donnes envie de vomir!'

'That didn't answer my question.' John pushed on.

'Non, despite what you and everyone else is thinking, I like Victor.' Remy replied frostily and rushed into his room. Rogue closed the door in the same moment that Remy banged his one shut, before John could see that she had been listening.

}

}

}

}

}

}

On the next evening Rogue sat alone in the kitchen. Piotr had a date, again, as did Jubilee and John was with Bobby. Angel hunched in front of his old laptop again and Remy was wherever Remy was when he went out.

It was strange, having the flat this silent around her. With eight people living in one space silence wasn't something that occurred often, or rather at all. For the first two hours it had been nice but by now Rogue was restlessly tapping with her fingers on the table top. She had tried reading one of John's books earlier but they were all pretty depressing and Rogue had never been an avid reader.

Something heavy fell against the front door or at least it sounded like that had happened. Rogue flinched and seconds later Angel opened his door and looked at her:

'What was that?'

'I don't know.' She stood up and took one of the kitchen knives.

'Here.' She gave it to Angel and took one of her gloves off, before she opened the door slowly.

'Fuck.' The slumped figure on their doormat was Remy with blood stains on his coat and trickling down his face.

'Help me.' She ordered Angel and gripped one of Remy's upper arms with her gloved hand while Angel took the other arm. Together they pulled him inside. Rogue closed the door behind them and put on her glove whereas Angel hauled Remy in a more or less standing position. He leaned heavily on Angel and supported himself against the wall with his free hand.

'Je suis bien, chère.' Remy tried to assure her but he couldn't have chosen a more obvious lie. This wasn't like all the other times when he had come home with bruises and scrapes because Creed like it 'rough' – this was much, much worse.

'I'll bring him to the couch.' Angel said and more or less carried Remy there.

'Was that Creed?' He asked after he had deposited Remy on the sofa.

'It's not what you think.' Remy protested weakly.

'It was him then, wasn't it.' Angel's hand that still lay on Remy's shoulder tightened and Remy pulled a face:

'Ow.'

'Sorry.' Angel let go immediately and looked at Rogue who had come back with the first aid kit from the kitchen cabinet.

'You should do this.' She said to Angel and gave the kit to him. With the havoc her mutation caused it was better not to take any chances.

'You should call John, or Piotr. I have no idea what I'm doing here.' Angel sounded slightly frantic.

'And you think they do?' Remy laughed shallowly.

'John usually patches you up when you come home.' Rogue pointed out.

'I don't want him to see me like this.'

'Hate to tell you this but you live in a room with him.' Angel muttered: 'It'll be a bit hard for you to avoid him seeing you.'

'He'll come back tomorrow. I'll look better tomorrow.' Remy said confidently: 'Don't call him.'

'At least John will be relieved that you'll break up with Creed.' Rogue said when she helped Remy out of his coat.

'Who said something about breaking up?' He asked her sharply.

'Remy, he beat you up. Don't tell me you're not breaking up with him.' Rogue countered.

'You don't know what you're talking about.' Remy huffed: 'He had no choice.'

'He had no choice but beating you up?' Angel's disbelief was clear in the way his eyebrows rose.

'We work together.' Remy stressed: 'Why are you all so intent to paint Victor as my abusive boyfriend?'

'Maybe because that's what he is.' Angel said quietly but unmistakably. Remy pulled away from him.

'You don't know what you're talking about.' He said again and then limped to his room where he shut the door loudly.

Angel sat down heavily on the couch.

'I hate it when he does this.'

'Maybe Creed isn't as bad as we believe.' Rogue tried. She couldn't imagine it but that didn't mean that it wasn't possible. Angel expressed his opinion with a scoff:

'You saw him. No one likes him, no one trusts him, not John, not Logan, the people who know Remy best. I'm not going to believe for one second that Creed loves Remy.'

'But Remy loves him, I think. He likes being with Creed and you can't tell me that Remy couldn't kick his ass if he wanted to because he could.'

'Maybe Creed blackmails him.' Angel ranted.

'You mean because of you? To keep you hidden from Essex and your father?'

'It's possible.' Angel shrugged.

'John asked Remy the same thing.'

'And?'

'And nothing. Remy said that he's with Creed because he likes him, not because of something else.'

Angel was silent for a long time.

}

}

}

}

}

}

True to his word Remy did look better the next morning and if John was ever told what happened last night then he wasn't told by Rogue or Angel. Rogue supposed that John wrote off Remy's injuries as 'usual' because she didn't hear them fight again and they didn't behave like they had been in a fight somewhere else either.

Life continued pretty much like it always had. Only...

_Mutant Mass Grave Discovered, Boston Daily News _

_A shocking discovery has been made just outside Boston. The corpse that had been discovered by joggers a few weeks ago was part of a considerably larger grave. 89 bodies have been found yet but the disinterment continues. According to the police the DNA evidence confirmed that all of them are mutants. While most of the corpses are yet to be identified because of the large numbers of mutant runaways some spectacular discoveries have been made. Among the dead is the infamous Bella Donna Boudreaux, known as The Beauty of New Orleans who vanished three months ago._

_Cause of death and exact dates are withhold by the police but witnesses stated that most of the corpses were fresh or only in the first stadia of decay. Also reportedly most victims are teenagers or young adults._

_The police spokesman advised the population to keep calm and to report any suspicious circumstances to the police as soon as possible. Especially for parents with mutant children it is advisable to be cautious._

_So far none of the anti-mutant groups have to take responsibility for the dead but a few less militant groups have already expressed their disgust at the systematic murder of young mutants in the area and beyond it._

Jubilee stopped showing her tricks in shopping malls and instead worked in the park now where Piotr sat every day.

Nick dropped Rogue off at the train station and John took Cassie to school even when he had late classes and walked her back home, too if Nick was still working.

Sometimes Remy, sometimes John picked Rogue up after work. Angel had done it once or twice, too but after a near incident with a group of anti-mutant protesters he stopped leaving the flat altogether and the farthest he ever went was the fire escape to smoke.

Far too many people approved of killing mutants even if officially no one had taken responsibility for the mass grave. Fear reigned everywhere among the mutant community. Raven called her family more often and before going home, she shapeshifted into a bulky man that looked like no one would like to start a fight with him.

Bobby told them that the few 'out' mutants in his and John's school had been taken in for homeschooling and John said that the other mutants who worked near the train station tried to look out for each other but there were too many mutant runaways in Boston. Most of them weren't as lucky as Rogue or John or the rest of them. They were a faceless, nameless crowd, easy prey without any family or friends looking for them.

And on the other hand the only mutant she knew whose family was looking for him tried to stay as far away from them as possible.

Five weeks after the article had been published Rogue was woken by Jubilee who had a crying fit. Jubilee sat on her bed, the knees pulled up to her chin and sobbed into her hands to quell the noise.

Instinctively Rogue pulled on her gloves before she went over to Jubilee and sat down next to her. Gently she pulled Jubilee's hands from her face:

'shh, shh. What's up? What happened?'

'They...they're going to kill us.' Jubilee cried.

'Who's going to kill us?'

'...They...' Jubilee stared at Rogue without really seeing her. She had a panic attack, probably because of a nightmare but Rogue felt helpless.

'Jubes.' Rogue tried calmly and laid her hands on Jubilee's shoulder while looking her in the eyes: 'Jubes. You need to calm down. No one's here but us. No one's trying to kill you.'

'...they...they're...they're...killing..us...killing us all.' Jubilee gasped out between her sobs. She was hyperventilating.

'Breathe, Jubilee, please breathe.' Rogue asked her increasingly desperate. She tried to remember her own panic attack after her mutation had manifested and killed Cody. How her parents had looked at her, how everyone couldn't stay far away enough.

She had an idea, got up and gathered the blanket from her bed to wrap it around Jubilee and then pulled the other girl in her arms. It didn't work immediately but after a while the sobs faded and Jubilee's breathing slowed.

'My parents.' She whispered into Rogue's chest.

'What?' Rogue wasn't sure she had understood her.

'They killed my parents.' Jubilee repeated: 'Because I'm mutant.'

'You were out?'

'Yes.' Jubilee whispered feebly:' My parents were okay with it. The rest of the world? Not so much.'

Rogue didn't know what to say to that so she kept quiet.

'Why did you leave?' Jubilee asked when the minutes passed by.

'I killed my boyfriend.' It was the first time she had actually said the words out loud.

'Oh.'

Rogue let go of Jubilee.

'Are you better?' She asked. Jubilee nodded and gave Rogue her blanket back.

'Thanks.' She smiled and Rogue knew without doubt that she no longer was just Illyana's replacement.

}

}

}

}

}

}

John smirked at them from the other side of the kitchen table the next morning:

'Long ladies night, talking about boys and brushing each other's hair?'

'Where do you get these ideas?' Jubilee rolled her eyes: 'It's not like there are any interesting boys around to talk about.'

'That 'urt.' Remy dramatically put both hands over his heart. John laughed, while Rogue tried to ignore the wonderfully smelling coffee and pancakes n front of her to catch five additional minutes of sleep in the crook of her elbow on the kitchen table.

'And why are you even awake?' Jubilee growled at John. She sounded a bit like Logan when she did that.

'Need to do my homework. Bobby lies in his bed with a bad cold, so I can't copy his and Kitty won't let me.'

'I thought Bobby didn't let you either.' Remy said between drowning his coffee in sugar and getting up to rumour through the fridge for milk.

'Nah, he's my boyfriend.' John said with a sly smile: 'I have ways and means available to persuade him. But as he isn't here I have to find the answer to the question what Scott Fitzgerald wanted to tell the world when he wrote 'The Great Gatsby.' Not that we have any way of knowing because no one made Fitzgerald read his own work in high school and then answer questions about it.'

'You didn't 'ave to pick literature.' Remy said simply.

'And do what? Bio-Hi Angel, some pancakes?' John asked when Angel came into the kitchen.

'No.' He said, filled a mug with coffee and leaned against the window ledge to stare outside. He had become more and more subdued during the last weeks.

'Is Piotr waking up sometime today, too?' John asked. Angel shrugged. John rolled his eyes but didn't try to speak to Angel again. They had all figured out that it was for the best to leave him alone.

'You could write that he was against pollution.' Jubilee suggested.

'The book's from the 1920's.'

'So what?'

'I don't think the word 'pollution' was invented yet.'

'But pollution is an actual and universal problem.'

'Maybe, but not back then.'

'Then how about...uhmm...religion!'

'I don't believe that's going to work here either.' John shook his head at her: 'You know I actually want to gather some points with this homework. If weren't for that I would have already written that Fitzgerald had issues with his mum and held a great believe in archetypes and so on.'

'Sex.' Remy said: 'The twenties were pretty much sex, drugs and rock'n roll with jazz for rock'n roll.'

'Thanks, Remy. I knew there was reason I saved your life.' John grinned mockingly.

'You saved my life?' Remy sputtered: 'When did that happen?'

'You really want me to recount every time? In front of an audience?' John challenged him.

'You'll have to because I only remember the time where I saved your ass from a pissed off barkeeper that didn't see the fun in you burning all of his alcohol.'

'Nah,' John waved his hand decliningly: 'That was my charitable me, allowing you to save me in order to make you feel better after you lost so horribly at Poker.'

'And you lost me.' Jubilee threw in.

'Me, too.' Remy added: 'Somewhere around 'charitable.'

'It's too early for your multi-clause sentences.' Rogue complained. She had finally found the energy to lift her head from the table and drink some coffee, which was nearly cold by now.

'And yet you can think up words like 'multi-clause sentences'.' John laughed when he saw her face.

Remy spooned out the rest of his homogenous coffee – sugar – milk mess and stood up.

'See you later.' And stole the last pancake from John's plate. John, who was busy making notes for his homework in his minuscule writing didn't notice until Remy was already out of the door.

After Rogue, in a caffeine induced high, had found the energy to eat her pancakes, too, brought her dishes to the sink, John asked her:

'When do you have your next free day?'

'Wednesday,' She answered: 'Why?'

'Essex wants to see you again.'

'Why?' She asked, feeling nervousness creeping up in her.

'Just a few tests,' John reassured her: 'Nothing to worry about.'

'Tests?' The word alone made her suspicious.

'They're harmless. We all did some tests with our mutations. Jubes did – what did you do again?' John turned to Jubilee.

'How high the voltage and ampere of my lightening is.' She answered but she didn't look at either John or Rogue.

'See? I had to try how far I can feel fire.' John gave her a crooked smile: 'You just come with me on Wednesday and that's it.'

Well, it wasn't like she had a choice, did she?

}

}

}

}

}

}

John tried to make small-talk with her the whole way from their flat to Essex's labs but something about it felt off. Like John was trying to hide something from her. Or maybe she was so anxious that she was already imagining things. The disappearing and murders of mutants hadn't stopped. Now that the police had found the mass grave the bodies were simply left everywhere, like trash that someone had let fall from their pocket. On top of that she hadn't seen Remy in a few days but as that wasn't that unusual no one was really concerned, or at least no one admitted to it. Angel spend more time staring out of the window since Remy had left but whether that meant that he was worried or that he wanted to go out more desperately with each passing day, Rogue couldn't have said.

John brought her to same room as last time and Essex greeted her politely:

'Good morning, Rogue.'

'Good morning, sir.'

'Please, sit down.' He made a motion towards a chair and Rogue did as she was told. Essex attached electrodes on her head and body.

Suddenly restrains clicked around her. Rouge struggled against them but they didn't give in.

'It's just a safety measure.' Essex told her calmly: 'John, bring them in.'

'John!' Rogue called but he ignored her and instead opened another door, not the one he and Rogue had come through.

'You.' He said to someone Rogue couldn't see until a girl stepped out of the other room. She was thin, nearly a skeleton with rings under her eyes and a sweaty sheen on her skin. Essex sat down behind his desk and said:

'You know what to do.' That was for John. He guided the girl to Rogue, who understood what was going to happen:

'John, no, don't do this.' She pleaded but John's took the girl's wrist and pressed her hand against Rogue's bare neck. Rogue tried to move away, frantically strained against the bounds that held her in the chair but nothing gave away.

'Fuck, John, no...let me go!' She screamed but John seemed to be deaf to her. The thin girl shook in his arms and became unconscious but John pressed her hand against Rogue's skin until the lines on the girl's body disappeared.

Rogue had her eyes pressed close and tears ran down her face. She shook with the memories that invaded her mind, memories that weren't hers. She wanted to be out, wanted to run away as soon and as far as possible. Essex looked at her dispassionately as if she was nothing more than a lab experiment.

'She's dead.' John said in a dead voice.

'Bring it to the storage room. Creed will take care of it later.'

'YOU MONSTER!' Rogue screamed at him, or maybe at John, she wasn't sure. It didn't matter.

'YOU FUCKING BASTARD MONSTER!' The restraints held her back because else she would tear of her gloves and press her hands onto this man's face until he would shake and die like the girl had.

'John, the next one.' Essex didn't even look up from his computer.

'FUCK YOU! FUCK YOU!' Rogue howled. She hated him, hated him like she had never hated before.

The boy who followed John couldn't be much older than twelve. His glassy eyes told her that he was drugged.

'You don't have to do this, John.' She pleaded again, trying to find John's eyes and when she did his eyes were cold and emotionless. He didn't care about what was happening. He just didn't care.

}

}

}

}

}

}

'Don't touch me!' Rogue snapped at John when he tried to steady her outside the building. She was dizzy with wrong memories and powers that weren't her own. Remembering how Essex had shot her after she had been forced to touch that one woman, how much it had hurt even as her bones and muscles and skin had knit themselves back together immediately was revolting.

But what made her want to throw up was that after everything John still presumed that he was her friend and thus had the right to help her, to touch her.

'You're not better than that monster in there.' Rogue spat at him. John held up his hands in surrender but he did it mockingly. It made her want to scratch his eyes out.

'You need to get a grip on yourself.' He told her.

'Are you freaking serious?' She couldn't believe what she was hearing: 'Three people are dead! Why doesn't that matter to you?'

'You killed someone before, I killed someone before. After the first time it doesn't really matter anymore.'

'And the experiments? The mass grave? The 89 dead mutants? Don't they matter either?' She asked bitterly.

'Look around you, Rogue.' John said and there was nothing mocking left in his voice: 'Look where you were a year ago and where you are now. And then don't tell me that the experiments are a too high price to pay.'

'It's wrong.' She repeated. John laughed hollowly:

'Do you think I don't know that? Everything's wrong. But compared to what waits for us out there, Essex is the lesser evil.'

Rogue swallowed, thought about what Jubilee had told her the other night; that her parents were murdered because she outed herself as a mutant. She couldn't agree with John but she couldn't disagree with him either. Essex was a soulless monster but he had helped them and that counted for something.

'Will he repeat the experiments with me?' She asked and was proud that her voice didn't break.

'He's never done it before and I don't see any reasons why should be an exception.' John answered. That wasn't much but it was better than nothing.

'You're not the only one he made kill someone.' John said after a while of silently walking next to each other.

'Why are you telling me this?'

'I thought it might make you feel better. We all killed someone for him, except for Cassie since her power isn't working in any physical way.'

'But you're not feeling them in your head.' Rouge reminded him icily: 'You don't have to live with their memories echoing around between your own.'

John had nothing to say to that.

}

}

}

}

}

}

To make the day even better John and Rogue came home to find Remy, which was good because it meant that they all could stop worrying now, fighting with Angel.

'Non, that is the last time I'm going to say it!' Remy yelled.

'It would make everything easier, even for you!' Angel yelled right back.

'Hey, guys.' That was Cassie, who unsuccessfully tried to stuff a bottle of unlabelled content undoubtedly alcohol in the inner pocket of her jacket.

'How much of that paint thinner do you need for your visions?' John asked.

'You're not my mother.' Cassie snapped at him.

'Not enough I guess.' John muttered sarcastically. He looked at Remy and Angel again, who didn't show any signs of exhaustion.

'Do you know what that is about?' Cassie shrugged. She gave up and simply hid the bottle under her jacket.

'Remy came in, Angel said something like 'have you thought about it?' Remy said 'forget it' and then they were all over each other.' Rogue decided that she had enough for one day and went to her room.

}

}

}

}

}

}

'You could've warned me.' Rogue snapped at Jubilee after she had closed the door behind her.

'I couldn't.' Jubilee answered.

'Because John didn't let you?' Rogue guessed furiously: 'Are we all John's slaves, doing what he tells us to do?'

'When it comes to this, we all listen to him and Remy.' Jubilee was remarkably calm.

'How can you-' But Jubilee interrupted her coolly:

'Look around you, Rogue: we have a place to stay, someone to protect us from the authorities, the experiments are a small price to pay.'

'You can't seriously mean all this.' Rogue couldn't believe what she was hearing.

'Why not? I would be in foster care if not for Essex and you'd probably be in prison for murder. I'm sure John already told you this: Essex owns us all.

'He made me kill someone!' Rogue screamed.

'Essex's experiments have a good reason.' Jubilee continued: 'He made the vaccine against the illness that killed Illyana. And he's working on a cure for mutants.'

'A cure?' That stopped Rogue mid-thought.

'Yes, a cure.' Jubilee repeated.

'But all the people that died...'

'Essex knows more about mutant physiology than anyone else. Lots of people come to him and they do anything for him.'

'Even die.'

'Sometimes it's better to die.' Jubilee sounded absolutely sure of herself when she said this.

'What about John and Remy and Piotr?'

'Piotr's still working off all the time and research that went into the vaccine for Illyana's illness. As for John and Remy...I don't know. They don't talk about their reasons for this, but you see John, see how far he's willing to go. Not just the tests.' Jubilee added when Rogue scoffed disdainfully: 'But his ever day work. Do you think that just because he makes it sound like that whoring yourself out is easy? And Remy...he's protecting Angel. That's all I know.'

'It's still wrong.' Rogue tried to argue but her reasons were fading in the face of a cure.

'John's not your enemy. He's your friend.' Jubilee reminded her: 'And if that's sometimes hard to see then think of the cure. Just think of the cure.'


	3. Chapter 3

'Hey.' John said when he met Rogue outside the train station. She hadn't forgiven him but the safety measures were still in place. Too many groups still thought that if someone was already killing mutants then why shouldn't they do it, too? And not just in Boston but all over the country mutants were 'harassed' as it was called by the media, which spanned from calling mutants names over not letting them enter bars or restaurants to beating them up. Fortunately the actual number of mutant killings hadn't risen. Yet.

'Hey.' Rogue said and shouldered the bag with her uniform:

'You need to shower.' John pulled a disgusted face:

'This last guy, he was-' He made a motion like he was throwing up.

'The downside of selling your body?' She asked with a small smirk. It had been a few weeks and with the foreign memories slowly being buried deep in her mind, it became easier to forget what happened.'

'It pays better than anything else and I don't want to be in Essex's debt for the rest of my life.'

'What did he do for you?' Rogue was genuinely curious about this and this time she figured that John would talk because he owed her for betraying her trust like that.

'He got me into the system, well me and Cassie but Nick's paying for Cassie, so that I can have a normal life.' To Rogue that sounded like a petty reason for doing the things John did for Essex but she didn't push it.

'Does Bobby know?' She asked instead.

'He knows some things, but not all of them and he certainly doesn't know all the gruesome details.' He laughed:

'Do you know when I first knew that I was in love with him?' She shook his head.

'He met Logan for the first time and he wasn't intimidated the slightest bit.'

'It's hard to imagine with Bobby.' Actually short beyond of Creed Rogue couldn't imagine anyone not being intimidated by Logan.

'He's pretty tough.' John said.

'But not tough enough?' Rogue asked.

'There are things no one should know that they don't have to know.' John told the distance but when he looked at her again, his trademark smirk was firmly back in place:

'Three weeks to graduation.'

'I know.' She told him, which was a) because John was talking about it nonstop and b) she had placed her bet with Piotr instead of Remy and Angel. Prom Night was way more romantic than graduation day and she saw Bobby as a closet romantic.

'What do you want to do afterwards?' John shrugged:

'Bobby wants to go to New York.'

'Do you want to go with him?' John looked impossibly young and boyish when he smiled like this:

'Kinda, yeah.'

For the first time in weeks the silence between them when they walked home wasn't awkward or strained but comfortable.

Cassie waited for them at the front door.

'Shouldn't you be in bed?' John asked. Cassie shot him an annoyed look:

'Nick told me to wait for you here. He's trying to get the van.'

'The van?' Rogue asked: 'What for?'

'Angel's ill. He's pretty bad.' She didn't sound as blasé as usual which usually meant that the shit was going to hit the fan.

'Ill? What happened?' Rogue asked before John could.

'Something about Essex. I don't know. Ask Remy.'

They followed her upstairs. Everyone was gathered in the kitchen were Angel lay on his stomach, feathers strewn around him and the skin on his wings looked wrong, black and violet and red like skin shouldn't look at all. He was writhing in pain.

'Remy.' John said sharply: 'What happened here?' Remy, visibly distraught, came over to them from his place at the window where he was no doubt watching for Nick to return.

''e...'Remy had to take a deep breath before he started again: 'Essex 'as been working on a cure. It's not working but he's getting closer.'

'And you told Angel about this?' Rogue couldn't believe what she was hearing. If there was a cure why didn't Remy tell all of them?

'No, I didn't.' Remy protested: 'Even Essex wasn't testing it yet. But Victor, 'e said something to Angel about it and Angel wanted me to take 'im to Essex, to test it.'

'That's what you've been fighting about?' John guessed.

'Qui, I told 'im non, mais il n'a pas vu de raison.' Remy threw up his hands: 'Et aujourd'hui il a dû aller seul.'

Thankfully John didn't fall into French too like he usually did when Remy started it but asked in English:

'Have you called Essex or Creed about this?'

''E's saying that it was Angel's own choice.' Remy answered: 'I think 'e's dying, John.' Remy sounded genuinely scared.

'You know that brining him to a hospital will probably bring his father here?' John reminded him.

Cassie came over to them:

'Call Bobby.' She demanded of John.

'Sorry?'

'I had a vision. Nick's not going to get the van, so call Bobby.'

'Why is Logan never here when we need him to be here?' John cursed silently but he pulled out his cell and called Bobby.

}

}

}

}

}

}

Rogue later couldn't remember what exactly John had told Bobby even though she had been standing right next to him but her memory blurred from this point on.

She remembered that the car Bobby had driven wasn't a van but a pick – up truck and that they all had held on for their lives while Bobby had driven at a neck – breaking speed to the next emergency room.

She remembered that Piotr had carried Angel inside.

She remembered that there were other people inside, people waiting for a doctor, nurses, paramedics and someone who looked like they belonged to the cleaning staff. What united these people were their wary looks towards Angel, towards all of them.

'We have an emergency.' John told the nurse at the desk. She didn't even look at him.

'Hey!' John hit the desk with his hand, hard: 'We need some help for our friend! Now!'

'We don't treat mutants here.' She told him calmly.

'Are fucking kidding me?' John yelled: 'He needs a doctor!'

'That doesn't concern us.'

'He's dying you stupid bitch!'

'Please,' Rogue begged her: 'Please, we need help.' She felt close to crying. Next to them Piotr still held Angel in his arms. The stench of rotting flesh was overwhelming.

'You can't do this,' Bobby tried to argue: 'This is against the law.'

'The law is for humans. He is not a human.' The nurse told them unmoved

'Fuck you!' John clicked his lighter open and drew a flame. He held the flame ball in his hand in front of the nurse's face.

'You are going to get us a doctor. Now. Or you are toast.'

The nurse shot them all a nasty look but took the receiver and called for a Dr. Beckett.'

John didn't pull his hand away from her face until the doctor came. The man took one look at Angel, then at John, who still held that flame ball in his hand and then ordered Piotr to lay Angel face down onto a bed.

'What happened?' The doctor asked no one in particular when he pulled on some gloves and touched Angel's wing skin. Angel screamed in agony, which made everyone of them flinch except the doctor.

'He took something that was supposed to cure him.' Jubilee said in a small voice. She looked horribly shaken and trembled slightly. Piotr moved to pull his arm around her shoulders.

'Do you know what it was exactly or do you have a sample?' The doctor asked annoyed. When they all shook their heads, he sighed and called a nurse to draw some blood from Angel.

'Wait here until the blood screening comes back.' He told them.

'Can't you give 'im something against the pain?' Remy asked. He was holding one of Angel's hands in his.

'We don't know how he would react to that. And you wouldn't want to make it worse.'

'How long will it take?' Bobby asked.

'A few hours.' Jubilee began to cry and hid her face in Piotr's chest.

'It could be too late for him in a few hours.' John argued.

'Anything else would be taking unnecessarily risky chances with your friend.' The doctor stayed adamant about this.

'Here.' John pushed a handful of dollar notes into the doctor's hand. It had to be everything he had made this night.

'Does it still take a 'few hours'?' He asked. The doctor looked at the money in his hand, then back at John:

'Maybe only one or two.' He amended and left them.

}

}

}

}

}

}

Angel died ten hours and 19 minutes later on the same emergency room cot. True to his word the doctor had come back with the blood test results after an hour but they had been inconclusive. That had been the last thing anyone had said to them before they had left them to watch Angel suffer and die.

No one reacted when his heart rate sped up and then went flat. No one said 'I'm sorry.' To them either. A nurse simply pulled a sheet over Angel's dead, horribly disfigured body and crawled the time of death onto a formulary that she gave John.

'Are you his family?' She asked without any emotion in her voice.

'No. We're his friends.'

'Does he have any family?' Now she sounded annoyed. As if they were deliberately wasting her time by being slow. Remy pulled a passport from his coat pocket.

''is name is Warren Worthington III. 'is father is Warren Worthington, senior, the owner of Worthington Labs.'

'Do you have a telephone number?'

'Non.'

'Very well.' She huffed and took the passport: 'Go. The hospital will inform his family.'

With a last look at Angel, they edged away from the hospital.

'I'll drop you off and then I have to go home.' Rogue heard Bobby quietly saying to John. John even mustered up the ghost of a grateful smile for him.

'Thanks Bobby. Thanks for coming.' Bobby reached for John's hand and pulled him into a hug. Rogue looked away, jealous and hurt and broken. She wanted to wake up in her bed and see that everything was just a fucking nightmare. She felt tears on her cheeks.

Then she remembered that it was late. That she should already be at work. She had to call Raven to tell her that she wouldn't be coming today, that she couldn't do anything but crawl into her bed and cry.

}

}

}

}

}

}

Someone, maybe Nick or Cassie had cleaned up the kitchen from Angel's feathers. Rogue found herself relived because she wasn't sure if she could have dealt with seeing them yet. The feathers on the back of Bobby's truck had been bad enough.

Neither Nick nor Cassie was there and none of them went to bed even though they had to be exhausted. Jubilee sat down on the couch, pulled her knees up to her chin and cried into the sleeves of her yellow jacket. Piotr sat down next to her and pulled her into his arms while whispering into her hair. John held his lighter to his lips and stared out of the window but his eyes were blank and wide. At the counter Remy tried to make coffee for all of them with trembling hands.

Rogue looked from one to another. She didn't know what to feel, how to react. She had called Raven on John's cell but Raven had said her that Nick had already told her and that it was okay. That she was sorry.

She had wanted to call Logan but Logan didn't have a cell phone. He called them not the other way round.

'Merde!' Remy dropped a mug and everybody flinched. Instead of picking up the pieces, Remy threw a second mug against the wall and practically ran out.

No one stopped him.

John opened the door when someone knocked on it but it wasn't Remy, it was Bobby.

'Shouldn't you be in school?' John asked surprised.

'Had a big fight with my parents where I was tonight. I told them to go to hell.' Bobby made John sit down again and picked up where Remy had left. Coffee wasn't an universal remedy or a remedy at all but caffeine still made her feel better, or maybe rather less exhausted.

Nothing else changed. They all sat there, silent except for Jubilee's quiet crying and waited for Remy to return, for something to happen instead of doing anything themselves.

Angel's death was in every newspaper the next day. They all tried to return to their everyday lives but at least to Rogue it felt wrong. She didn't even feel anger yet or denial. She just felt empty.

Remy still hadn't returned at John grew antsy, worried. No, not only John but all of them. Everyone of them could guess that Remy had done something stupid in his rage. For Remy that covered a lot from drinking himself to a stupor over cheating the wrong guys at poker to attacking Creed and/or Essex on his own.

Bobby had suggested calling the hospitals and police stations for someone that matched Remy's description but no one had done it. They all still expected Remy to return on his own.

The big outing of Worthington's supposedly comatose son as a mutant on the run from his own father was the headline for days on end and made the company's stock worth drop dramatically but Worthington didn't say once that he had made a mistake but blamed everything on Angel.

After that interview Rogue stopped reading the articles about him.

}

}

}

}

}

}

'Hi.' The stranger wore black clothes and had dark, curly hair and a scar on his chin. Rogue had never seen him before.

'Who are you?' She asked. It's been nine days since Angel's death and Remy still hadn't come back.

'My name is Harry Osborne. I'm...I mean I was Angel's friend.' Rogue stared at him.

'I don't know how much he told you about me but we were communicating over his laptop after he ran away.'

'He's dead.' Rogue wasn't quite why she had said this.

'I know. I was at the funeral yesterday. Angel always spoke very highly of his friends. I wanted to meet you.'

John had turned up behind Rogue. He regarded Harry with a strange mixture of distrust and appreciation.

'Come in.' He said. Harry followed them into the kitchen. Bobby was here like he had been here since they day Angel had died.

'Who are you?' Piotr asked this time.

'I'm Harry Osborne, Angel's friend.' He repeated.

'I'm John, this are Jubilee, Piotr, Rogue and Bobby.' John introduced him.

'Angel mentioned a Remy?'

'Remy isn't here right now.' John answered stiffly: 'Why did you come here? And don't give me that 'just wanted to meet you' crap.

'I wanted to know how Angel died.' Harry said bluntly.

'That was in the press.' Rogue answered coldly: 'He killed himself.'

'I was his friend before either of you had even met him. I know that Angel would never kill himself.' Harry told John almost challengingly.

'He took an experimental cure for mutants.' Piotr's voice echoed quietly through the room.

'Made by whom?' Harry asked right back.

'A man named Essex.' John answered.

'Dr. Nathaniel Essex?'

'Do you know him?' Rogue asked perplexed.

'He is...was a friend of my father.'

'As far as I know Essex isn't dead.' John's tone was mordant but Harry seemed to be a rather stoic character.

'He isn't but my father is. He died two weeks ago. A drug designed to enhance the normal human skills to a superhuman level.'

'Why are you telling us this?' John asked suspiciously.

'Because I need your help.' Harry confessed: John automatically shifted into a position that would allow him to attack Harry the second he thought it would be necessary.

'I've taken over my father's firm after his dead and I found papers that show that my father, Angel's father and Essex have been illegally experimenting on humans and mutants for more than a decade now.'

'Why do you need us?' John obviously wasn't convinced.

'I want to take it to court but I can't do it alone. Angel talked a lot about you and about your arrangement with Essex. You would be perfect witnesses.'

'Why didn't you just do it then? Why ensure our cooperation first?' Rogue asked.

'So I have your cooperation?' Harry asked back. When he saw their faces he added: 'You heard the same bullshit about Angel that his father spreads that I did?'

'We need a better motivation than revenge.' John's expression seemed to say to Rogue and she didn't doubt that Harry saw it too.

'As you said we have arrangements with Essex.' Piotr said calmly before John could deescalate the situation: 'And to have any chances in a trial you need an attorney that is at least neutral to mutants if not pro-mutant.'

'That's part of the reason I'm here, too. I know that one of you has such an attorney in his family. A Federal attorney even.' Rogue followed Harry's look and saw Bobby, who frowned at Harry. Then his face became clearer.

'Bobby?' John looked at him, too.

'My uncle Francis, he...but I haven't talked to him in years. He and the rest of my family don't get along.'

'Francis Drake is your uncle?' Jubilee asked him with wide eyes. Bobby shrugged as if he was embarrassed, for which he had no reason since Francis Drake was one of the best known advocates of mutant rights in the United States and beyond.

'Like I said, we don't talk.' Bobby looked distinctively uncomfortable with the idea of talking to his uncle.

'But you could talk to him and he would probably listen to you because he's family.'

'Look,' John interrupted: 'I know you said Angel was your friend but what you are trying to do is very likely to get you killed. To get us all killed if we would help you.'

'I understand.' But Harry looked like he was a bit disappointed: 'Just...think about it, okay? For Angel.'

'Essex does a lot of important research for us.' Piotr reminded them: 'He developed the vaccine for Illyana's illness.'

'And how many of your kind where killed for that?' Harry asked back.

'Still less than those who will live because of it.' Piotr sounded absolutely sure of it: 'I don't approve of Essex's methods but he gave us too much to jump at the possibility to avenge Angel's death.'

'And you don't care.'

'I care, I guess I just don't mind.' Piotr replied. Harry put a small, white card on the table. He looked at John:

'Call me if you change your mind.'

}

}

}

}

}

}

They talked about it in the evening, at length but didn't reach a conclusion. Rogue and Piotr were against helping Harry taking action against Essex, but Jubilee and Bobby were for it. John didn't partake in the discussion, instead he leaned against the window where Angel used to stand and watched the night outside.

'Hey,' Rogue said when she joined him at the window later. Bobby had gone home and the others had gone to bed.

'Remy's not coming home, is he?' She spoke out loud what everyone was already thinking. Nine days was too long, even for Remy.

'No, he isn't.'

'How are you holding up so much better than the rest of us?' John shrugged:

'Practice.'

'That's probably the saddest thing you've ever told me.' John's laugh sounded hollow and broken through the empty room.

'What are you honestly thinking about Harry's plan?'

'I'll tell when we found out what exactly happened to Remy.'

}

}

}

}

}

}

They got that call two days later. It was Rogue who had been at home when the police called but it was John who went to the morgue to identify the body. He didn't return for another day and when he did he was bloody and bruised and his clothes were torn as if he had fought with a beast.

He took Harry's card from the kitchen table where it had stayed for the last three days and called.


	4. Epilogue

The media frenzy was high of course it was because three big companies were involved. First the police questioned all of them, then the FBI and then probably every authority in the US did it again. Rogue still doubted that anyone would have listened to them at all without the tangible proofs Harry and John had provided.

It was the last night at home for them. Only John and Piotr would stand witness in court, together with Harry, of course. They were the closest Francis Drake could get to Angel and Remy. They would be moved to protected custody for the trial. Bobby had been adamantly that he would come with John, much to his parents' dismay, Rogue imagined.

Logan had come too. Rogue didn't know if Raven had called him or if he had come because he had picked up a newspaper somewhere.

'Heard you have found a relative.' He said to Jubilee.

'My aunt.' Jubilee beamed at him. It had turned out that her aunt had been looking for her since Jubilee's parents' deaths. She was the happiest of all of them. An aunt meant family, a steady life, school and friends, a normal life, something that Jubilee missed more than the rest of them except John.

'She lives in San Francisco. You've ever been there?' She asked Logan.

'It's not much different from Boston.' He said but Jubilee looked like she didn't quite believe him.

'It's on the other side of the continent.' She argued: 'It has to be different.'

Logan shrugged at that.

'And you came out to your family for the bunch of them?' That was for Bobby. John had told Rogue once that he knew he was in love with Bobby after Bobby had faced Logan without being intimidated the slightest bit. Rogue had thought that he was joking back then but now she saw that he had spoken the truth.

'Funnily they found the mutant thing worse than 'My mutant boyfriend is working for a criminal' side of the story. My mum even asked me if I tried not being a mutant. Oh, and my brother hates me.' He said this in a flippant tone like the one John would use but John was sitting next to Bobby and looked at him with a deeply adoring gaze in his eyes.

'On the other hand my uncle couldn't be more proud of me if he tried.' Bobby added.

'You're giving up a lot to do the right thing.' Piotr said: 'They should all be proud of you.'

Rogue didn't hear Bobby's answer because she had already left the flat to get the mail for today. Most of it was junk but between two flyers she found a postcard signed by Nick and Cassie from Hong Kong. They had left Boston and the USA as soon as John and the others had told them that Essex would be made accountable. Every name in Essex papers would be examined and wherever Nick and Cassie came from it was clear that they didn't want to return there. Rogue regarded the card wistfully. Lots of things were happening at once and she couldn't keep track of all of them and she doubted that she wanted to be there when some of those things happened.

For the last 17 months this flat and this group of mutants had been her home, her family and deep down she had hoped that it may stay this way forever. But they were mutants and happy endings were not written for them. She knew that siding with Harry had been the right decision but t hadn't been the easy one and right now Rogue wished that they would have taken the easy decision.

'Hey kiddo.'

'I'm not a child.' Rogue told Logan, who had followed her downstairs without her noticing it. She turned around to face him.

'Raven said something similar the last time we spoke.' Logan reached out to take her gloved hand in his: 'I'm sorry this deal with Essex didn't work for you.'

'It worked out for none of us.' She shrugged as if it didn't matter: 'Angel and Remy are dead. Piotr will be send back to Russia after the trial, John, Jubilee and Bobby will leave, too.'

'What are you going to do?'

'I'll probably go back to sleeping in the storage room.' She replied dryly.

'You could come with me.' Logan suggested.

'And wait in the trailer ever night while you're out drinking and chatting up some woman? I think not.'

'Damn, Marie, it wouldn't be that way. He argued but Rogue wasn't convinced.

'It was that way last time.' She pointed out: 'What changed?'

'You changed. As you pointed out, you're not a kid anymore.'

'I weren't a child when we met either.'

'More than you think.' He smirked at her: 'Come on, do you really want to stay here? You said yourself that everyone else is leaving, so why not you, too?'

She looked at him, considering while deep down she had already made her decision.

'You still can't touch me.' She pointed out.

'We'll figure something out.' His smile told her that he knew what decision she had made.

It wasn't an ending but it may learn in time to be happy.

The End


End file.
